Greece Defaults on IMF Payment

The Greek government has defaulted on its 1.5 billion Euro payment to the International Monetary Fund, throwing the Eurozone into a crisis.

IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said in a statement that Greece had asked for a repayment extension earlier Tuesday and that the fund’s board will consider it “in due course.”

The default has left Greece on the edge of bankruptcy and is a blow to the Eurozone and the Euro currency, which was introduced at the beginning of the century. The bailout programme ran out at midnight, potentially leaving Greece without a financial lifeline.

After weeks of negotiations, the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, proposed a bailout rollover programme worth almost €30bn to Greece to be spent on servicing debt.

This does not come as a surprise as the Greek government has been warning that they may default for weeks, however some creditors are calling the proposals too little too late. The 19 finance ministers of the Euro using country’s held a teleconference for an hour on Tuesday evening,and dismissed the proposal from Tsipras.

The Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, has said that the ministers would talk again on Wednesday and would work with Greece to try and come up with a solution.

“We won’t negotiate about anything new at all until a referendum, as planned, takes place,” said the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. “This evening the programme expires.”

On Sunday, Greece goes to the poles to decide on whether or not they agree with proposals set out by Greece’s creditors. Some observers have described the referendum and being about whether or not Greece should stay in the EU.